Modern industrial lasers use semiconductor devices to provide energy directly to manufacturing targets or as pump sources for solid state lasers. However, laser diodes are generally assembled in protective packages to protect the device from damage due to thermal and mechanical stress, corrosion, contamination, etc. Semiconductor laser packages may be passively cooled or actively cooled using various heat dissipation components such as heat dissipation layers, heat spreaders, and/or heat sinks.
However, many applications for laser diode packages may require extreme size, weight, and power requirements that generally render laser diode packages, or even laser diodes, unsuitable for the application. Particularly, approaches that might address such requirements stand in direct tension with laser diode and laser diode package reliability and power capabilities. Therefore, a need remains for laser diode packages with improved size, weight, and power characteristics.